This page focuses on OTA news in the hotel industry. Online Travel Agencies such as Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, MakeMyTrip, Trip.com and more play a central role in hotel distribution, pricing visibility, and guest demand worldwide. This page brings together curated news related to these OTAs from trusted and reputable sources, including leading industry publications, official company announcements, and expert analysis. By aggregating these perspectives in one place, it gives readers a clear and up to date view of how OTAs are evolving, from platform strategy and product innovation to partnerships, regulation, and the broader market trends shaping the hospitality ecosystem.
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I honestly don’t understand how multi-day tours are expected to work on GetYourGuide … GetYourGuide launched multi-day tour sales with a lot of noise and publicity, but in reality these products… | Andrey Matveev | 13 comments
🛫 Who? Tour operators and GetYourGuide. When? Current issue discussed. Where? Italy and potentially other tour destinations. What? Selling multi-day tours through GetYourGuide is challenged by high commissions (30%) and standard 24-hour cancellation policies. How? Operators face economic strain with €2,000-€7,000 tours, upfront costs, and potential losses from cancellations. A 5-day Italy tour was deactivated due to disappointing support interactions. Curious about other operators’ experiences and negotiations on these terms.
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10 Ways Hotels can Increase Direct Bookings in 2026
🏨 In 2026, hotel website traffic is down 40-60% due to AI, but storytelling can boost visibility. By late 2025, 30% of travelers start searches on Booking.com. 65% prefer AI-facilitated personalization. 53% abandon slow mobile sites, highlighting the need for fast, seamless booking experiences. PPC ads yield a 2:1 ROI. In 2023, 65% of same-day bookings were on social media. Loyal customers seek immediate rewards, and trust in secure booking increases direct sales. By 2030, direct bookings are projected to…
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Recast: Why regenerative tourism is the future of hospitality
🏨 Karen Stephens and Aradhana Khowala discuss the future of tourism on the Hotel Moment Podcast. Aradhana, with two decades of experience across 85 countries, emphasizes the shift from sustainability to regenerative tourism, advocating for industries to give back more than they take. She critiques current travel AI as “lipstick on legacy” and highlights the need for systemic change in tourism. Amid global instability, tourism faces challenges, with lost revenues and reduced bookings impacting local economies.
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Booking.com vs. Berlin Court: The parity story every hotelier needs to know
📈 In December 2025, the Berlin Regional Court ruled against Booking.com, holding it liable for damages to over 1,000 German accommodation providers due to rate parity practices that breach competition law. This decision could alter hotel and OTA relations by 2026. Lighthouse, a platform trusted by 70,000 hotels in 185 countries, provides insights on the ruling’s implications.
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141 – Are OTAs dead vs AI? The debate is on
This article was written by Martin Soler. Click here to read the original article Are AI platforms going to make OTAs obsolete? Three different analysis worth reading. OpenAI wants to…
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AI Platforms are coming for Booking’s Cake
🛫 AI platforms are transforming online travel by enhancing search discovery and potentially impacting OTAs. With conversational search and transactional capabilities, AI offers a promising alternative. Yet, OTAs maintain advantages in inventory, trust, and transaction handling. Future scenarios include OTAs using AI bots, becoming back-end systems, or AI evolving into metasearch tools. Confidence in AI will be crucial for consumer trust in high-cost, low-frequency travel purchases.
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Own the Right Guest: The New Luxury Resort Strategy
This article was written by Demand Calendar. Click here to read the original article The Strategy – The “Audience-First” Approach Before we can discuss execution—before we debate email segmentation…
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Optimising Your Hotel’s Online Listings
Most hoteliers can remember a time when online travel agents felt like the enemy. You would see a booking come in, notice the commission attached to it, and wonder why…
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The Great Debate: OTAs, AI, and the End of the 10 Blue Links Era | PA Dispatch No. 10
💻 Last week at Skift Megatrends, Seth Borko, Sarah Kopit, and I discussed AI’s impact on travel distribution. OTAs face challenges as AI alters discovery, potentially compressing take rates. U.S. travel agents once numbered 170,000; now, discovery may consolidate to ChatGPT/OpenAI and Google/Gemini. AI risks homogenizing choices, but personalization could counteract this. Independent hotels can now better target customers through AI. While AI simplifies building, it may centralize distribution, leaving OTAs vulnerable to repricing.
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2026 is the year of the brand evolution
📱 In 2025, a major shift in hospitality emerged with AI-driven booking channels changing consumer behavior. Large language models (LLMs) reshaped hotel discovery and choice, demanding more comprehensive brand storytelling. Traditional web searches have evolved to longer, more detailed queries, making older optimization models obsolete. By mid-2025, Online Travel Agencies gained influence as AI narrators, challenging hotel brand ownership. Cendyn, with over 35,000 clients in 150+ countries, drives $20 billion in hotel revenue annually.
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Navigating Stagnation: The New Normal for Hotels
📈 In 2026, hotel industry forecasts reveal a challenging outlook with minimal RevPAR growth at 0.6%, contrasted by inflation at 2.4%. The industry faces a “trifurcated” economy, with luxury growing at 3.2% while other segments shrink. Short-term rentals capture all net accommodation gains. AI revolutionizes operations, necessitating hotels to adapt for AI recommendations. Notably, 40% of U.S. travelers now plan trips using GenAI, emphasizing the shift in consumer behavior and loyalty. The FIFA World Cup significantly impacts industry performance.
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Hotel Revenue Leakage: 9 Silent Profit Leaks (and How to Find Yours Fast)
📈 Hoteliers are losing around 6% of revenue due to rate leakage, with OTA commissions between 15–25% worsening margins. The Hotel Revenue Leak Diagnostic identifies and quantifies revenue leaks caused by misaligned pricing, reliance on high-cost channels, missed demand signals, and poor operational practices. The tool provides insights into channel and pricing imbalances and potential financial impacts. It’s ideal for independent hotels and operators seeking clarity on revenue issues before further investments.
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Luxury Resort Marketing’s Most Expensive Miscalculation
🏨 Luxury resorts face rising acquisition costs and diminishing control over demand due to reliance on intermediaries like OTAs, Google Ads, and paid social, which intercept rather than create demand. This increases booking costs over time. Despite sophisticated marketing, the failure to control pre-marketing access results in compounded losses, mistaking channel performance for strategic control. Effective demand control involves reaching guests directly and shaping decisions before booking, reducing dependence on non-owned channels.
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I walked out of FITUR last week with one overwhelming conclusion: the way travellers discover and book is changing faster than the industry realises. The data speaks for itself: ~55% of travellers… | Juan Destribats
✈️ Last week at FITUR, it was revealed that 55% of travelers now use AI, like ChatGPT, to plan their trips. Traditional booking methods are fading as AI handles availability, policies, prices, and recommendations. Notably, Expedia increased conversion by 35% with AI-powered search. The shift towards “agentic booking” is expected by 2026. Companies failing to integrate AI risk becoming obsolete, while those embracing it will thrive. Collaboration with Clicktotravel aims to enhance AI-native hotel presence.
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Innovate to Elevate: Maximizing Hotel ROI Through Data and Technology
This article was written by Lodging Magazine. Click here to read the original article At the 2026 Americas Lodging Investment Summit, the panel “Data, Trends & Solutions—Innovative Products & Services…
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Top 10% of U.S. Households Now Drive Majority of Consumer Spending, and $544 Billion in Annual Leisure Travel
The Top 10% and Top 1% of American households now account for more than half of all U.S. consumer spending. This dominance is most acute in travel and tourism, where their collective leisure expenditure is projected to reach $544 billion in 2026, according to new research from Resonance Consultancy, a leading advisor in placemaking and place marketing, specializing in strategy and research for destinations, real estate developers, and hospitality operators.
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Turneo Launches Neo: The AI Agent Platform Built Exclusively for Hotels
💻 Turneo launched Neo, an AI platform specifically for hotels, on January 2026. It’s trained on thousands of hotel guest interactions, supports 95+ languages, and deploys in one day with no technical staff. Neo automates over 80% of hotel requests, integrates with hotel systems for full control over guest interactions, and enhances guest satisfaction by providing instant responses. Founded in 2022 by Matija Marijan and Fran Kauzlaric, Turneo’s platform addresses hospitality’s unique challenges.
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The Invisible Revolution: Why AI Is Rewriting the Rules of European Tourism
🌎 In 2026, EU Tourism Day in Brussels highlighted AI’s impact on travel behavior. With 39% of travelers using AI for planning trips—58% of Millennials and 45% of Gen Z—AI is becoming the primary interface. 41% trust AI over friends for recommendations. Europe, with its rich but fragmented tourism offer, faces challenges in digitization. The shift requires machine-readable data to compete in an AI-driven market. AI governance and strategic data use are essential for sustainable tourism growth.
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The Top OTAs Infographic Remix Project
📊 After publishing the OTA infographic, 10 Minutes Hotels witnessed unexpected remixing and sharing on LinkedIn. The infographic was reimagined with new designs and color schemes, demonstrating the desired shift from content consumption to contribution. This led to the creation of the “Top OTA List open remix project,” encouraging users to post their versions and tag 10 Minutes Hotels. This project aims to credit original creators and expand the gallery of creative remixes.
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#hospitalityleadership #traveldistribution #hotelstrategy #ota #revenuemanagement #boardperspective #hospitalityindustry #traveleconomics #digitaldistribution #hotelowners | Zhivko Ivanov
🏨 Booking.com generates more global visibility than the top five hotel chains combined, including Marriott, Hilton, IHG, Wyndham, and Accor. As of now, the largest OTAs—Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Airbnb, Trip.com Group, and MakeMyTrip—dominate attention in the travel sector, significantly impacting search, pricing, and booking behaviors ahead of hotel websites. This spotlight on OTAs highlights strategic concerns for hotel CEOs about outsourcing control over the demand funnel.
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Why Hoteliers Trust AI-Powered Pricing Over Guesswork
This article was written by Revfine. Click here to read the original article Are your room rates helping your hotel grow, or quietly holding it back? Pricing decisions directly affect…
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Expedia’s different bet
🛠 Expedia’s infrastructure supports 70,000+ businesses, including Chase Travel, which reported $11.3 billion sales in 2024. In Q1 2025, Expedia’s B2B segment achieved a 22.8% EBITDA margin, outperforming its consumer segment at 11.1%. AI’s rise could challenge Booking.com’s visibility control while Expedia could become indispensable infrastructure. Expedia trades at 13-14x forward earnings vs. Booking’s 19-21x. AI’s impact on both is distinct: Booking risks losing travelers, while Expedia risks being invisible but essential.
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#airlineindustry #aviationbusiness #airlinedistribution #gds #ota #traveltechnology #airlinestrategy #commercialaviation #airlineleadership #aviationtrends #travelindustry #ndc #directdistribution… | Wael Mattar | 14 comments
✈️ Airlines face a dilemma between GDS and OTA. GDS offers access to premium passengers but incurs high distribution costs. OTAs provide volume and speed but compromise airline identity and customer loyalty. Airlines must choose between controlling distribution or negotiating dependency. The key to success is knowing when to use intermediaries and when to walk away, with the future hinging on shifting from selling seats to owning customers. Margin, not channel, often suffers in these compromises.
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Yesterday, we hosted our sold-out Skift Megatrends event in New York City, bringing together leaders from across travel, technology, hospitality, and media to examine the forces reshaping the… | Skift
📊 Yesterday, New York City hosted the sold-out Skift Megatrends event, highlighting travel industry shifts by 2026. AI and zero-click search are disrupting traditional models, shifting focus to generative engine optimization based on authority and relevance. OTAs remain important, but AI is changing trip planning. Live sports, music, and cultural events are boosting travel demand, with mega-events like the World Cup reshaping tourism strategies. Despite new travel tech innovations, access to demand remains a key growth challenge.
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#hospitality #revenuemanagement #otastrategy #hoteloperations #distributionstrategy #hotelleadership #adr #occupancy #revpar | Suresh Kumar Sharma
📊 Booking.com boasts the highest booking volume but suffers from a high cancellation ratio. It’s ideal for base volume generation and new hotel visibility. Expedia excels in higher ADR with fewer cancellations, suitable for quality revenues and business segments. Agoda, strong in Asia, provides fast last-minute pickups but lower ADR, perfect for distressed inventory. Choose Booking.com for volume, Expedia for revenue quality, and Agoda for last-minute optimization. OTAs should complement your revenue strategy, not compete.
